In 1838 the first ships to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone—the "Sirius" and the "Great Western"—came into New York from Liverpool, a few hours apart, forerunners of the fleets that furrow all the seas today, making quick pathways for the gospel messengers to all lands. Verily, they are a gift of God's providence to this generation, when all the world is to hear the gospel message.
CUNEIFORM WRITING
An account of the capture of Babylon, b.c. 538. From the cylinder of Cyrus.
"He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth."
In 1825 Stephenson built his first railway passenger locomotive, which may still be seen in the Darlington railway station, in England. It was the beginning of the great revolution in land travel. The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, scientist, wrote:
"From the earliest historic and even prehistoric times till the construction of our great railways in the second quarter of the present century [the nineteenth], there had been absolutely no change in the methods of human locomotion."—"The Wonderful Century," p. 7.
MANUSCRIPT WRITING
The process by which the books of the great library of Alexandria, Egypt, were made.
For nearly six thousand years men had traveled in the old way. Why should these revolutionary changes in travel by sea and land come abruptly just at this time?—Because the time foretold in the prophecy was at hand, when the last gospel message was to be carried quickly to all the world—"to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." We see the hand of the living God opening the doors into all lands, and His wonderful providence laying at the feet of this generation agencies for quickly covering the whole earth.
